Rep. files Turnpike Authority bills

Monday

Sep 29, 2008 at 2:00 AM

YORK, Maine — Rep. Dawn Hill, D-York, said her patience with the Maine Turnpike Authority has reached its limit, and so she has filed a number of bills in the Legislature aimed, she said, at making the MTA more accountable and transparent.

Deborah McDermott

YORK, Maine — Rep. Dawn Hill, D-York, said her patience with the Maine Turnpike Authority has reached its limit, and so she has filed a number of bills in the Legislature aimed, she said, at making the MTA more accountable and transparent.

Last spring, the MTA board of directors told its consulting engineers HNTB Inc. to conduct a study to ascertain whether it was possible to keep the York toll plaza at its current site. This directive came after York residents and officials banded together to fight plans to move the toll plaza to another site that would have required the taking of private property.

HNTB was to have reported back to the board in June, but by August the meeting had still not been held. MTA spokesperson Dan Paradee said Friday there is still no date for the board to hear from HNTB. That has Hill concerned, she said.

"All this group has to hear is, 'We're not moving the tollbooth,'" said Hill, referring to the citizens group Think Again, formed to fight the relocation. "The MTA keeps saying the study is ongoing, they need more time. I don't entirely trust them. The fact that they're taking so long means they might be headed in the wrong direction."

She said she actually filed the bill titles in the spring, and was waiting to see the results of the study before she decided to go ahead with the bills. Having not seen the study, she said, she felt it was time to lay her cards on the table.

The bills are intended to bring the MTA, a quasi-governmental organization, under more public scrutiny. And she makes no bones about the fact that this is an issue the entire state should be concerned about, not only a group in York.

"The whole state could benefit by the oversight of the MTA," she said. "They're just off on their own." A number of bills would require more public scrutiny of the MTA's accounting practices. One such bill mandates that there be a public audit of the MTA books to "ensure there's fair and actual funds." The current law mandates that any MTA surplus must go to the Maine Department of Transportation, "but as I've been able to determine, there's never any surplus. Every time they get ready to pay off one bond, they take out another. The only audit is a private one."

She said the MTA has 113 miles of road, while the DOT has thousands, many of which are in very poor condition. Paradee said so is the infrastructure of the MTA. "We're a 61-year-old highway now. It's absolutely true that we don't have a surplus and we don't expect one. We have 96 bridges we have to rehabilitate. If anyone came in here and saw what we have to rehabilitate, they'd know why we don't have a surplus."

Another bill deals with eminent domain — key in the case of the property in York that could be taken by the MTA if it builds a new toll plaza. The bill would require the MTA to pay a "reasonable price" by determining the average cost of a property over a five- or 10-year period. "If, heaven forbid, they actually do have to take someone's property, this would make sure they don't buy it at a low price when the market's depressed like now."

She said she has also filed a bill requiring that the MTA hold public hearings on all projects and that the projects be subject to the Right to Know law — which Paradee said is already the case. Finally, she wants any structures built by the MTA, including buildings and tollbooths, to be consistent with the Maine Quality of Place goals that they be visually pleasing.

Paradee said he welcomes the public discourse that will result as Hill's bills wend their way through the Legislature.

"That's fair. It's absolutely her right as a legislator to file them, and I think nothing but good can come of it. It will increase people's understanding of the Turnpike Authority and our understanding of local issues."

"It's going to be a busy session," Hill said.

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